I’m extremely pleased to be offering team retreats for nonprofit leadership teams in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. 

Typically two days, these facilitated retreats offer a chance for your nonprofit’s leadership team to have in-depth conversations about the issues that matter most for your organization, craft a vision for the future, reconnect as a united team, and so much more.  

In the past few years, I’ve found particular joy in working with nonprofit leadership teams, which is why I’m making this a major focus of my offerings in 2025.

What is a leadership team? The answer to this question depends on the organization. Typically, a leadership team includes the executive director and the top-level staff (sometimes called the executive team or the leadership team) and may include all managers or all directors at an organization.

What are some of the problems leadership teams face? Nonprofit leadership teams can face any number of different problems: disagreement about the future of an organization, communication issues, knowledge gaps, uncertainty about the future, unresolved disagreement and personality conflicts, resource management issues, work style issues, and so much more. Left unchecked, these problems can fester and become bigger problems later. Building deep connection across the leadership team around the organization’s mission is the first step to mending these fractures.

Sometimes, there isn’t a problem at all – but an opportunity. Even teams that are working great together and in total alignment can benefit from a retreat. A retreat can help the team adopt the same strategy, identify opportunities for improvement, and celebrate recent wins.

Retreats are uniquely impactful. I’ve restructured Groundwork Strategy in the last few years to prioritize in-person retreats specifically because I’ve seen how effective they can be at creating lasting, positive change at an organization. A well-executed retreat can be a catalyst for massive evolution in an organization, where crucial conversations unfold safely and new visions for the future are co-designed by participants.

Through custom leadership team retreats, teams are able to:  

• Identify the biggest points of tension and uncertainty among team members and proactively address those issues;
• Rebuild relationships that have gotten out of alignment;
• Design a shared vision for the future of the organization;
• Make crucial decisions;
• Address burn out among team members;
• Build key skills that will help leaders be far more effective;
• Create a sense of connection and teamwork that will help the team thrive; and
• Inject new energy and purpose into a leadership team.

Leadership team retreats are not the only retreats I offer; you can also reach out for retreats for your full staff, coalition, board of directors, or other teams within the organization.

If you’re curious about working together to plan a retreat, don’t delay. Schedule a meeting today and we can talk about your hopes for the organization.

Please note that I currently offer in-person retreats, either in the San Francisco Bay Area or beyond. I do not offer remote facilitation (over Zoom or similar) nor do I offer hybrid facilitation (where some participants call in and some are in person). That’s because the retreat I co-create with you will be designed to be a catalyst for change, connection, and renewal—and I haven’t found any way to reproduce that virtually.

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